In 1903 the Agua Caleinte Cupeno were removed from their ancestral tribal home, the Village of Kupa also known as Warner's Hot Springs. The Cupeno were forced onto the Pala Indian Reservation. This is known as the Cupeno Trail of Tears.
On June 1st, 2011 and February 1st, 2012 162 Warner Ranch Evictee Agua Caliente Cupeno were removed from the PBMI Association by the Pala Enrollment Committee. This is our Second Trail of Tears.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Old Pala

There's an Old Pala that has existed probably long before there was even a Pala but that's another story. There were and still are indigenous people living around Old Pala. They are called Luiseno. They were Mission Indians under the jurisdiction of the San Luis Rey Mission. They are a band of Luiseno. There are many Luiseno bands around Southern California. Many people at Pala have a mix of Luiseno blood. The Luiseno reservations are Soboba, Pechanga, Pala, Pauma, and Rincon.

In 1852 the Pala Luiseno singed a treaty with the U.S. Government. They were granted a reservation in 1875. In 1895 some Pala Luiseno were allotted land. This land was and continues to be recorded separately as part of the Old Pala Reservation.

There is another Tribe of indians called the Agua Caliente Cupeno. These were not Mission Indians. By all accounts they were hard working self sufficient people. The traditional homeland of the Cupeno is the village at Kupa also known as Warner's Hot Springs and before that Agua Caliente.

The Agua Caliente Cupeno continued to reside on their ancestral homeland until 1903 when due to a Supreme Court ruling the Cupeno were forced off their land. The U.S. Government in all its wisdom decided purchasing land right next to the Old Pala Luiseno Reservation was a good idea. There were other tracts of lands considered such as Monserate but in the end the old Salmons Ranch was purchased for the Cupeno.

There was a provision in the law that said something like the land was purchased for the Agua Caliente Cupeno (Warner Ranch Evictees) and other landless indians that had no home. This created sort of a land grab as people just showed up at Pala.

In May of 1903 several villages around Kupa were moved to Pala. In October of 1903 another tribe was forced to move to Pala. These were the San Felipe Indians, Iipay or Digueno. This was a separate lawsuit and separate removal.

One Cupeno legend is of Kisily Pewish. His mother was Luiseno from Soboba and Father was Cupeno. One day the "Southerners" or Digueno massacred everyone at the Village of Kupa except for Kisily Pewish and his Mother. They went back to Soboba where, just to short hand the story, Kisily grew up and retook Kupa from the Southerners by killing them all with the help of his magical bear and his mother.

So, the BIA in its infinite wisdom decided putting the Agua Caliente Cupeno next to the Pala Luiseno and then mixing in Iipay was a good idea.

Initially the BIA tried accounting for all the Indians separately. There are Luiseno, San Felipe, Cupeno, Cahuilla, and Yaqui all at Pala as well as some others. But as time went on to make administration easier on themselves the BIA just tried to say everyone was Pala. But tensions always arose and continue to this day among the different tribes and bands at Pala.

The Agua Caliente Cupeno historically have governed themselves through Custom and Tradition through Family Relationships. This continues to this day. However, in the 1960's the BIA forced the indians at Pala to abandon any official relationship with their blood lines and tried to merge all the blood into one calling it "Pala Blood" or blood of the band. This was an association of bands and tribes and not one tribe.

The problem with this, and the BIA knows it, is that it is against the law for one tribe to determine the membership of another (see Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez). This is precisely what is going on at Pala to this day. We have non-Cupenos deciding who are members. They are even changing blood degrees against the recommendations of the U.S. Government. What gives them a right to change anyone's blood degree?

Further, in the 1960's, the Cupeno at Pala knew there were several tribes at Pala. Thus they pushed to be included in Enrollment Ordinance No. 1 a provision not allowing tribal members to belong to more than one tribe. See below Section 1c.

Click to Enlarge

The Agua Caliente Cupeno have always pushed for Kupa blood to be counted and the BIA has always denied it. Now, the BIA has changed the name of the Old Pala Luiseno to the Pala Band of Mission Indians illegally. That means technically Pala is now a 132 acre reservation with 800 acres of grazing rights all the rest belonging to the Agua Caliente Cupeno as well as other Warner Ranch Evictees. But for whatever reason the BIA does not see it that way. Go figure.

22 comments:

With all of Pala's problems it was just learned today that the Casino has laid off more than 250 employees. This comes at a time when Robert is proposing a $170 million dollar expansion. Seems like there is no business sense left at all in Pala. Pechanga has taken away whatever business edge Pala had(For sure now past tense). So confident is Robert in Pala's success, it is rumored that he has personally invested in Pauma's expansion. Wonder where that money came from. It really is time for all this madness to end. There is one person (Donna)who could end this tomorrow but she won't. How much more has to happen to Pala before (Donna) finally comes forward and tells the law authorities the complete story of murder as it has never been told before. There is no statute of limitations on murder (Donna). It is time. It is time long past due. How many more families need to suffer. How many more children have to be forced in to deprivation. End it (Donna). End it now.

How could a person that claims to be a pastor of a church not tell the truth and have justice served upon the guilty one or ones.She should know better than to test the Almighty One.Or is she a fake pastor.Maybe that's why so many of her people have past away lately.Between her and her son Leroy Miranda these deaths are just a start of what is to come.Its time to save what's left of our Reservation Pastor Donna.Read your bible and you will find the scripture that covers these types of cover ups.Do the right thing and talk to whom ever you need to talk with to fix this problem.Your are supposed to have a clean heart and mind when you preach the word of God.

Looks like it is getting to be too late. The beginning of the end is at hand. Rumors abound that there will be a reduction in per-capita coming soon to a pocket book near you. This comes after stories of more than 250 employees being laid off at the casino. So what is happening? Pechanga is happening. Pechanga has launched an aggressive campaign to capture as many customers as possible and it appears they are being successful. Nothing in Pala is going to get better until Highway 76 is improved and made safe. Why take the winding roads to Pala when you can go to Pechanga. Right now $170 million is being wasted on expanding Pala. Unless the road is improved the expansion will be worthless and a waste of money. The road can probably be fixed for less than $25 million and that alone would probably double per-capita. It is up to the people. If you want it then demand it. Put a halt to the expansion until the road is done. Why keep borrowing money when we can earn it with a good highway. It is the smart solution. Lets be smart this time.

Seems kind of odd that Nickey Freeman died last night of an apparentheart attack .Robert Smith and Nieto should be worried after it was found out that Nichole gave her facts to the FBI about how the EC runs the Tribe.

This is such sad news to hear. The poor Freeman family. May she rest in peace. Hope that Robert and Theresa are not involved but if they are, they will eventually pay and unfortunately so will all of Pala. They already are. Prayers for Pala. It is past time to rid your tribe of those corrupt leaders. Is the money more important than your loved one's lives, the people who have been living in your so called community as your brothers and sisters? You think because you are Native, you are sacred and spiritual, but you are mistaken, God sees your true souls, your greed is not becoming. The end of the Casino is coming, then what will you do, oh yeah, according to Robert, you have Welfare.

There is now way around it. Nikki was a traitor to her family and empowered Robert Smith over the years. Robert could not be the crook he is today without Nikki. She was a super snoop and gossip and she helped Robert control the information, gossip and lies, that have so infected Pala that no one knows the truth about anything anymore. At first one can only feel the worst for Nikki and that she be allowed to suffer for eternity for the wrongs she committed. What can be worse than to suffer an eternity at Robert's side. But that is not who we are. Nikki is a Cupeno and she will be greeted and embraced by family when she arrives in the next world because that is who we are. We are Cupeno and even in our darkest period in history, we do not reject our own. God bless you Nikki. Your family welcomes you and your rest will be peaceful. Sorry you couldn't see your way to help when help was needed. Your spirit will forever wander Pala with your cellphone at your ear as you report everyone's movements to Robert. You were replaced by video cameras and professional snoops and tossed away like the rest of Robert's trash. Go home now and find out that you really are loved.

How in hell does DEATH keep missing Robert Smith and his partner Theresa Nieto.I wonder how much they are guilty of in these deaths at Pala.I am just guessing here but I will bet that they have a hand in on some of them .The Mortuary's love the EC.They probably get notified in advance when who's next on Smith and Nieto's hit list.There are to many deaths happening in Pala for them not to be involved one way or another.

I was reading an article about the Pala expansion that Pala put out and it says the construction will have 300 new construction jobs and when they open Pala will hire 200 more employees to help bring in new jobs but I didn’t say that they just laid off 250 people so they’re just giving people back their jobs -50 that still lost their jobs. So big picture when the expansion is finished Pala just chopped 50 new jobs and didn’t help local cities with new jobs. On top of that I wonder how much money Smith and Nieto took from the construction loan because the money is given to them and they pay it out there’s nobody above them to check. To make it look legal they probably just give themselves a bonus with some of that money for helping facilitate the expansion. It would be really nice if Pala had a committee that oversaw all financial aspects that the EC does to verify the tribes money or on behalf of the tribe is being fairly used and distributed. “CHECKS & BALANCES”. Two words that scare the cr@# out of Smith and Nieto and something they would NEVER allow to happen. Their most feared word which is blasphemy to them and a bad word is “AUDIT”. This one word would end it all for Smith and Nieto.

it would not matter how many voted against any issue at the meetings because Smith and Nieto can easily change the votes to go their way.Those voting machines that are used at a meeting are a fucken joke and everyone knows it.Just look up the machines on-line at it will show you how easy it is to change the numbers.

AUDIT AUDIT AUDIT IS LIKE CALLING THE EC A BUNCH OF SON OF A BITCHES.THEY ARE AFRAID OF AN AUDIT AND WILL NEVER AGREE TO HAVE ONE DONE.NOW THE QUESTION IS WHY ARE THEY AFRAID OF AN AUDIT.BECAUSE AN AUDIT WILL SHOW THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL THE MONEY DEALINGS MADE BY THE EC.IT WILL SHOW WHERE AND HOW THE MONEY WAS SPENT OR STOLEN BY THEM.THEY ARE AFRAID THAT THEY COULD AND PROBABLY WOULD BR LOCKED UP IN FEDERAL PRISION FOR WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO THE TRIBE AND ITS MEMBERSBY STEALING FROM THEM.IF THEY WERE AN HONEST EC THEY WELCOME AN AUDIT TO PROVE THAT THEY ARE HONEST AND TRUST WORTHY.THEIR REFUSAL OF AN AUDIT SPELLS "GUILTY AS CHARGED".

Another way that the EC gets things passed is by presenting things as a draft and having the members vote on the draft.The way it should be is vote on the draft and bring it back to the members for a final vote after a wording is approved by the members.Other wise they can add or delete things from a draft to give them more and more power and then when someone questions them all they do is say the people voted on it and it was passed.Thanks to Kyle Felt and his ass kissers who will vote on anything that Robert wants passed, even if they know that its bad for the Tribe as a whole.90% of the motions made at the meetings are made and seconded by a certain group of people sitting at the front 2-3 rows and no one can ask anything about it before it gets passed.And never does the Chairman ever ask if there is any new business that needs to be discussed at the meetings so all you are doing is giving the EC mainly Smith and Nieto the power to do as they see fit.NO CHECKS AND BALANCES, ZORO ZERO ZERO-00000000000000000000.